BAGHDAD — Militants in Iraq attacked Christians in three separate Christmas Day bombings in
Baghdad, killing at least 37 people, officials said yesterday.

In one attack, a car bomb went off near a church in the capital’s southern Dora neighborhood,
killing at least 26 people and wounding 38, a police officer said.

Earlier, two bombs ripped through a nearby outdoor market simultaneously in the Christian
section of Athorien, killing 11 people and wounding 21, the officer said.

The Iraq-based leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Sako, said the parked car bomb
exploded after Christmas Mass and that none of the worshippers was hurt. Sako said he didn’t think
the church was the target.

Meanwhile,
The New York Times reported yesterday that the United States is rushing dozens of Hellfire
missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of
violence by an al-Qaida-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and
neighboring Syria.

The move follows an appeal for help in battling the extremist group by Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki, who met with President Barack Obama in Washington last month.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday’s attacks, but Iraq’s dwindling
Christian community, which is estimated to number about 400,000 to 600,000 people, often has been
the target of al-Qaida and other insurgents who see the Christians as heretics.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad condemned the attacks.

“The Christian community in Iraq has suffered deliberate and senseless targeting by terrorists
for many years, as have many other innocent Iraqis,” an embassy statement read. “The United States
abhors all such attacks and is committed to its partnership with the government of Iraq to combat
the scourge of terrorism.”

Yesterday’s bombings came amid a massive military operation in Iraq’s western desert as
authorities try to hunt down insurgents who have stepped up attacks across Iraq in the past months,
sending violence to levels not seen since 2008.